Whitcoulls recommends Lucy Foley and Jazz Thornton

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley. This is I think her 5th novel – she writes really intriguing books about people being caught in a time and place and what can go wrong. A few years ago, I loved The Hunting Party which was quite Agatha Christie-esque, set in a hunting lodge in Scotland during a huge snowfall when no one could arrive or leave, where a group of long-time friends are spending New Year. When one of the guests is murdered, they know that the perpetrator must be one of their own … it was fun. This new one is set in an apartment in Paris, not that you’d have guessed that from the title. Jess is an English woman who’s a bit down on her luck and asks her half-brother Ben if she can come and stay at his place – which turns out to be a much nicer apartment than she’d imagined he could afford, and strangely when she gets there, Ben’s missing and doesn’t come home. The neighbours are odd, some less than friendly, and as more time passes his absence becomes more and more mysterious – and suspicious. Letters to You by Jazz Thornton. Subtitled Words of Support and Inspiration for Difficult Times. Jazz was of course the 2021 Young New Zealander of the Year. The book is based on something that helped her on her own journey towards mental health. A good friend wrote her a set of letters each in a separate labelled envelope. Every letter was specifically designed to help fight a particular feeling or situation, and Jazz read them all many times. So, following this model, in this book, each chapter is in the form of a letter, and they cover a range of emotions and situations, including the following, and much more: Also includes practical tips from a practising psychologist, a list of places to get help, and a toolbox of handy skills to use when in distress.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.